Statistical modeling implicates neuroanatomical circuit mediating stress relief by 'comfort' food.

ABSTRACT: A history of eating highly palatable foods reduces physiological and emotional responses to stress. For instance, we have previously shown that limited sucrose intake (4 ml of 30 % sucrose twice daily for 14 days) reduces hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical (HPA) axis responses to stress. However, the neural mechanisms underlying stress relief by such 'comfort' foods are unclear, and could reveal an endogenous brain pathway for stress mitigation. As such, the present work assessed the expression of several proteins related to neuronal activation and/or plasticity in multiple stress- and reward-regulatory brain regions of rats after limited sucrose (vs. water control) intake. These data were then subjected to a series of statistical analyses, including Bayesian modeling, to identify the m

SUBMITTER: Ulrich-Lai YM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4744589 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature